Two ideas topped the list at today’s job summit, the much talked about talk-fest initiated by the Government.
A shorter working fortnight and a cycleway running the length of the country.
It is estimated the nine day fortnight could save 20,000 jobs.
Up to 250 business leaders had to listen to some grim facts as they were told the collapse is close to an economic tsunami.
“This is huge and the sort of things we are seeing now nobody has actually seen on an international stage. We think it is the biggest destruction of wealth, global wealth that this country has seen,” said Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard.
Unemployment is expected to rise from the current rate of 4.6 percent to 7.5 percent, but sources say the treasury is looking at that rising to between eight and nine percent in the May forecasts.
That is not as bad as the 1991 slump when jobless figures hit 10.9 percent.
“We believe it is going to be much more restrained than the last economic downturn,” said Mr Bollard.
But as bosses and workers brace themselves for what the forecasters are predicting will be a winter of discontent, some tangible ideas have been put forward.
One is a cycleway from Kaitaia to the Bluff; clean, green and floated as a way of saving New Zealand jobs.
Prime Minister John Key says it would cost around $50 million, take two years to finish and create nearly 4000 jobs as well as revenue through tourism.
The big idea to emerge though is the nine day fortnight, the tenth day given over to training or community work to be paid at least partly by the Government.
There are no firm figures but Key believes it could cost $40 million dollars to fund the tenth day for 100,000 workers.
For all the fears this was going to be a talk-fest, it is the nine day fortnight that has most fired the Prime Minister’s imagination.
He wants to make it a priority and implemented within six months.
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